The “War for Talent” made for nice copy and lots of fees for the management consulting industry over a decade ago. The reality however is that this “war” is a myth, always was and forever will be. It is unfortunate however that respectable organizations such as Bersin have to perpetuate the myth.

Instead of bringing out tired bromides of supposed strategy experts, it is time to seriously dissect some of the “truisms” of work, workers and the relationship between the two. It is not a hunt to bring in outside talent that is limiting the progress of organizations, rather it is the misalignment of the talent companies already have. It is the skills that go underutilized in jobs, the jobs that are disconnected with organizational goals, and the gaps between the skills needed verses the skills possessed by the workforce.

And what of the shortage of talent due to generational and societal trends? As our current economic dilemma painfully demonstrates, we actually had a significant oversupply of workers for the needs of the US workforce. With the economy in recovery, many of the jobs lost will never come back and the shrinking of the unemployment numbers will in large part come from older workers leaving the workforce faster than anticipated.

As for the issue of educational standards not meeting the needs of the US economy, this is a red herring. While the educational system needs retooling, there is a greater percentage of students attending college and earning degrees than at any time in US history. This is also true of high school diplomas, where the 1 out of 5 drop out rate is actually an IMPROVEMENT on the historical trends (US Census Bureau). While conflicted organizations such as ASTD may trot out numbers saying 30% of college graduated entering the workforce need “remediation” training, this seems highly specious at best when the numbers show greater levels of education every decade.

It is important to also consider that the workforce of the future is not the workforce as restricted within the boundaries of the US. It is now a global workforce and companies from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies are leveraging this global pool of talent and labor to get work accomplished. Furthermore, this talent is becoming more educated and more skilled. If a company does not find the talent it is looking for, they really are not trying hard enough or do not understand what they are looking for.

So the inability to fine-tune the workforce to the needs of the organization is in fact the real challenge over the next ten years. The war for talent is simply a symptom of this chronic misalignment of talent.